Our brother Kenneth Wong spoke on the Parable of the Good Samaritan last Sunday. It is a familiar parable to many of us, but yet, as God’s Living Word invariable does from time to time, it caused me to reflect on the parable this week and learn new lessons from different perspectives.
I have always associated the main lesson of the Parable of the Good Samaritan to be a call for us to be ready to help those in need, regardless of who (or what status) we are and who that person in need might be. This is love in action – something all of us believers have to be practicing. This is true and as the writer of the book of James succinctly puts it in James 2:26, “faith without works is dead”. However Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan in response to the question – “and who is my neighbour?” That question can have multiple answers. Our neighbour might be our family or relatives. Or perhaps they may include our friends and our colleagues? I think Brother Ken explained it well and the parable is clear – our neighbour is anyone whom we are aware is in need. They don’t have to be only our family, relatives, friends or colleagues. In fact, they don’t have to be anyone we know or even have met! We need to be like the Good Samaritan and respond appropriately, as Christ would want us to, when we encounter people in need that God puts in our lives.
We’ve recently had so much bad news about people in our church down with cancer and other illnesses. We continue to pray in partnership with our brothers and sisters in Christ and we have to be ready to help in any other ways we can. Beyond church, I know of a handful of friends and relatives who are also stricken with cancer. These are all people in need we have to be praying fervently for, and beyond praying, stand ready to help in whatever ways we can. But we don’t require for someone to fall sick before identifying a need. Everyday we are surrounded by people who have the greatest need of all – that of salvation from sin that only our Lord Jesus Christ can deliver from. Are we praying and doing everything we can, like the Good Samaritan, in meeting that urgent need?
Deacon Michael Teo
